Top 100 lists are curious beasts at the best of times. But compared to the pleasant predictability of People’s "100 Most Beautiful” or Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”, the “TIME 100” is a particularly baffling blend. Only here do comedians, congressmen and cricketers sit alongside terrorists, tyrants and tiger mothers to comprise the world’s most influential century.

We do get some intuitive topical touches. Among them, Barack Obama on Gabrielle Giffords: “a needed voice that cannot return soon enough”.  We can appreciate the inclusion of revolutionary figures from El Général to Ai Weiwei to Aung San Suu Kyi. Likewise, we should celebrate the ordinary man excelling in extraordinary circumstances – Japanese doctor Takeshi Kanno.

These people deserved to be honored. But – Obama aside – some of the more curious content comes courtesy of those doing the honoring.   FULL POST